Could fish oil in pregnancy prevent weight health isssues

Could fish oil in pregnancy prevent weight-related
health issues in children?Research
underway in Auckland could give expectant mothers a new,
simple way to improve the lifelong health of their
child.Researchers from the University of
Auckland-based Liggins Institute are seeking pregnant women
in the upper BMI range to join the clinical trial, which
will investigate whether fish oil supplements taken during
pregnancy could help prevent children from developing weight
problems and related issues such as diabetes later in
life.

Study lead Dr Ben Albert says: “We already
know that if you carry extra weight while you are pregnant,
your child is more likely to develop weight problems and
diabetes as they grow up.

“Women who are pregnant
try incredibly hard to improve their health to give their
baby the best start. But what should they do? Is there
something simple they could take? Our previous work suggests
fish oil may be protective for the developing baby.”

Half of the 160 women in the new trial will take fish
oil capsules during pregnancy and for three months after
birth while the rest take placebo (olive oil) capsules.

Women who are less than 16 weeks pregnant, aged 18-40
and with a BMI of 30 - 45 can participate in the trial. The
goal is for a third of participants to be Māori and another
third Pacific women.

“We know that Māori and
Pacific women are affected by weight problems even more than
other New Zealanders, so it’s really important they’re
part of this study,” says Dr Albert, who is a Research
Fellow at the Institute and paediatrician at Starship
Hospital.

Dr Albert has led a series of studies into
the health effects of fish oil supplements. In a study
published last year, his team found that fresh fish oil
given to overweight pregnant rats prevented their offspring
from developing a major diabetes risk factor. Other evidence
suggests omega 3 fatty acids in fresh fish oil improve the
way insulin works, which protects against diabetes and
related diseases.

But Dr Albert is not advising
mothers-to-be to take fish oil supplements until they can be
confident the supplements they buy are fresh. In an earlier
study, his team tested samples of 36 fish oil capsule brands
sold in New Zealand and found that most – 83 percent –
were rancid, oxidised beyond international recommended
levels.

How “off” they were had nothing to do
with best-before date, price, or the country they came
from.

And when the researchers fed highly oxidised
fish oil to pregnant rats in a later experiment, a third of
their pups died.

“If we find in our clinical trial
that taking fresh fish oil during pregnancy has the same
protective effect in humans it does in rats, that would
further strengthen the case for some kind of independent,
regular testing of fish oil supplements,” says Dr
Albert.

“Until then, our best advice is for
pregnant women to eat fresh fish. We can assure the women in
our study that the fish oil supplements will be
fresh.”

The wider challenge – of breaking the
intergenerational cycle of weight-related health problems
– is tough and will require multiple long-term strategies
across our society, he says.

“But improving the
health of mothers while they are pregnant is one really
powerful approach because the unborn baby’s environment in
the womb has lifelong effects on how their bodies work.

“I am increasingly seeing children in my clinic with
serious weight problems, many of them with complications
like diabetes that we used to see only in adults. If we
could reduce this with a safe, accessible, food-based
supplement, it could make a real difference for thousands of
families.”

The trial is funded by the Health
Research Council, and a funding collaboration between Cure
Kids and Government-funded National Science Challenge A
Better Start. Results are expected in 2020.

In response to the challenges facing Scoop and the media industry we’ve instituted an Ethical Paywall to keep the news freely available to the public.
People who use Scoop for work need to be licensed through a ScoopPro subscription under this model, they also get access to exclusive news tools.

You might be forgiven for being a little uncertain about what this non-fiction work is all about based just on its title, but the cover illustration steers you straight, and the content inside leaves you in no doubt about the purpose of this lovely book More>>

The full programme for Auckland Fringe arts festival 2019 has landed with a giant international announcement for the blockbuster programme which features Russian protest art collective Pussy Riot. They are set to make their New Zealand debut, coming to Auckland for one night only. More>>

The past two months have finally seen Netflix come into its own, providing the financing for three films that will warm the hearts of cinephiles everywhere - Orson Welles' The Other Side of The Wind, The Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and Alfonso Cuarón's Roma. More>>

Rachael Craw's first series, Spark has been extremely well received by the YA community in both Australia and New Zealand (it has a hashtag, #SparkArmy), and The Rift looks like it’s going to be just as popular. More>>